Sporadic attempts at a Python film reunion have been made since their cinema career as a group ended. All surviving Pythons bar Eric Idle participated in the recent A Liar's Autobiography, an adaptation of the book by former Python Graham Chapman, who died in 1989, and his long-term partner, David Sherlock.

But in a recent interview for the Guardian, Terry Gilliam cast doubt on whether a reunion would ever be successfully achieved. "We all have our own careers now … the BBC put us on 10 years ago, and it was an hour of mediocrity … the work wasn't what it should be."

Jones's directorial career hit the buffers after 1996's The Wind in the Willows with Steve Coogan; he was reportedly upset at its treatment by its distributors in the UK and US and decided to concentrate on TV, writing and opera instead.